Faith, gender, age didn’t limit Eunice Ordman

Over the years, anytime I went anywhere people of different faiths were gathered together in Memphis, I ran into Eunice and Chip Ordman.

They were more than a couple. They were a pair. Fellow travelers. Cultural explorers. Interfaith emissaries.

During their 32 years of marriage, they traveled with microlenders in Peru, medical missionaries in Malawi, teachers in Poland and Ukraine, artists in Cuba, students in China, peace activists in the Middle East, and medical supply smugglers in Thailand.

They shared meals and prayers with Buddhists in Bhutan, Hindus in India, Muslims in Morocco, Jews in Israel, and Catholics and Protestants in Europe and South America — not to mention members of all major and minor faiths in Memphis.

"Eunice and Chip, Chip and Eunice," Rabbi Feivel Strauss, one of their rabbis, said at Eunice's memorial service Wednesday afternoon.

"Chip and Eunice, Eunice and Chip," Dr. Nabil Bayakly, one of their imams, said at the service.

"They were always there together, on behalf of all of us," Rev. Carla Meisterman, one of their pastors, said at the service.

When was the last time you attended a memorial service led by a minister, a rabbi and an imam? Wednesday's memorial service was the first for me.

Eunice died over the weekend. She was 91. At Wednesday's service, she was remembered for her courage, compassion and commitment to people of all faiths.

The service was held at Balmoral Presbyterian Church, where the Ordmans were members. They also were members of Temple Israel. After 9/11, they also began attending regular prayers and events at Masjid As-Salaam, their neighborhood mosque.

"I was a Jew who loved to study the New Testament and other holy scriptures," Edward 'Chip' Ordman, Eunice's husband since 1983, explained. "She was a Christian who loved to study the Old Testament."

A match made in heaven.

Eunice and Chip were fellow scientists and professors. They met in New England in the 1970s and moved to Memphis in the early 1980s to teach at the University of Memphis.

It was her third marriage, his second. Together they had nine children by birth, marriage or adoption, 13 grandchildren, three great-grandchildren, and several "honorary" children.

"It is probably the way society works, but women are too often underestimated," Chip said.

"She was the one who knew how a large, complex, blended and extended family worked. She was the one who knew where the wires went inside the computer and made my professional career a success.

"She was the one who, when we were both active in our church and our synagogue, said it's time we started attending our neighborhood mosque.

"She was the one who proposed the colorful travel, and the one who understood the stock market well enough to be able to make significant charitable donations.

"I've long regarded her as one of the great colorful characters of the world, and I have felt it a privilege to go along for the ride."

Several years ago, on a trip to Israel, Eunice was mugged and her arm was broken in three places.

"The first emergency room doctor said, 'She's 83. She may have limited use of her right arm," Chip recalled. "I pulled out a small picture book showing her rowing a rowboat in the ocean and white-water rafting. 'She's not that kind of 83-year-old,' I said."